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. 2021 Sep 14;11(1):18286.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-97783-6.

Increased risk of health professionals to feel traumatized during the COVID-19 pandemic

André Luiz Carvalho Braule Pinto  1   2 , Alexandre Luiz Oliveira Serpa  1   3 , Jonas Jardim de Paula  1   2   4 , Danielle Souza Costa  1   2 , Kelly Robis  1   2 , Alexandre Paim Diaz  1   5 , Rui Mateus Joaquim  1   2 , Antônio Geraldo da Silva  1   6   7 , Débora Marques de Miranda  8   9 , Leandro Fernandes Malloy-Diniz  1   10
Affiliations

Increased risk of health professionals to feel traumatized during the COVID-19 pandemic

André Luiz Carvalho Braule Pinto et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

Health professionals may be a vulnerable group to posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) during the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. To investigate how health professionals who experienced a traumatic event are expressing PTSS and factors related to risk for higher PTSS symptomatology can inform how health professionals are facing their role in this crisis. This was an Internet cross-sectional survey. Participants were 49,767 Brazilian health professionals who have ever faced a traumatic event, which was about 25.9% of an initial sample of health professionals. PTSS symptoms were assessed using the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) and latent profile analysis (LPA) explored subpopulations within participants based on their scores. Distinct profiles were compared for psychological distress (e.g., depression and anxiety) and quality of life. Multinomial logistic regression analysis was conducted to investigate the relationship between IES-R profiles and COVID-19 related experiences, thoughts, and perceptions. A two-profile model was the most appropriate for the IES-R data pointing out a group with a high level of PTSS (named high-PTSS; n = 10,401, 20.9%) and another expressing a low level of symptoms (named low-PTSS; n = 39,366, 79.1%). The high-PTSS profile demonstrated worse psychological scores (global psychological distress, somatization, depression, and anxiety) and worse quality of life (physical, psychological, social, and environmental) with moderate magnitudes. Small but significant predictors of the high-PTSS profile included sociodemographic characteristics and COVID-19 related experiences, thoughts, and perceptions. Most individuals who experienced a traumatic event were not in the high-PTSS profile. For those who were, however, psychological and quality of life measures were much worse. During the initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, several characteristics emerged as risks to report trauma.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Latent profiles for IES-R scores. IES_intru Intrusion, IES_evit Avoidance, IES_hiperest hyperarousal.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Boxplot diagrams comparing IES-R’ profiles (traumatized vs. not traumatized) in relation to psychological distress (BSI measures) and quality of life (WHOQoL-BREF).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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